use real butter

This day is a good day. It’s the day you were born and boy am I glad you were born. You keep telling me to watch out, that you’re catching up to me for those nine days between our birthdays. You’re silly like that.

testing out kaweah’s rescue harness

People have no idea how ridiculous you can be. They never get to see that side of you. You only hint at it with your occasional dorky jokes. But Kaweah and I get to enjoy you for all of your hidden charms and goofiness.

yay for snow in yosemite!

thirsty pup on the trail

You have often said that you can tell a lot about a person by observing the way they treat animals and children. Even though neither of us ever wanted children, I marvel at how well you play with kids and how you are always trying to teach them, to engage their brains, and to make sure they are having fun while learning. I doubt the learning part ever got through to Kaweah, but she definitely had fun.

snow much fun

jeremy and miss crazy above treeline

my two best friends

You have a lot of patience. I mean A LOT of patience. It’s good that one of us does. You’re always a grounding force wherever you go. I just want you to know that it does not go unappreciated, at least not by me. How about that backpack in the Sierra when the mosquitoes were super awful and I lost it and you kept it all together? Or that time in Australia with all of those flies? You always make things better.

that time in australia…

We’ve been to many beautiful places together and sometimes (many times) in less than ideal conditions. I’m grateful that you tolerate and maybe even enjoy Fun #2. Because Fun #1 is for ninnies! I’m glad we value many of the same things in life and set similar priorities. People talk of adventure, of dreams. We live it daily – a choice we made together years ago. Thank you for that.

a windy day in new zealand’s high country

our backyard

summertime

riding in crested butte

**Jump for more butter**

Not the Olympics, but the Olympic Mountains in the northwestern corner of Washington State. I’ve had an obsession with this part of the world ever since I was a little girl, flipping through my collection of Time-Life Nature series books. Anyone remember those? We had The Universe, The Sea, The Desert, and The Forest to name a few. At first I only perused the pictures, but as I got older I could read and understand the narrative that accompanied the images that I had internalized in both my imagination and my understanding of the natural world. They imprinted on me. So much so that when I graduated from college, Jeremy and I took a road trip up the coast and back from Southern California to the Olympic Peninsula, stopping at several national parks and wilderness areas en route. My ultimate goal was to see the only temperate rainforest in the continental US – the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park. A photo, an idea, a place I had fallen in love with and latched onto since I was a five year old sitting on the living room floor with books and pictures of other worlds wide open. Adventure – wide open.

This past weekend, Jeremy and I returned after more than a decade away from this gem of a paradise. There are no roads that cross the Olympic Mountains. Most of the year the high peaks, glaciers, ocean, deep valleys, and skies are obscured by thick clouds. August and September are typically the best weather months for travel into the backcountry there, which translates into the busiest time of the season. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you view it), the snow pack was a month behind in melting out this summer and we were happily alone at the most popular backcountry destination in the park at the height of the summer season.

crossing the sol duc river

boardwalk trail through sensitive meadow

deer lake

avalanche lilies are first to bloom after snowfields melt away

the “snake pit”

**Jump for more butter**

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” -Eden Ahbez

Life has a fast pace – sometimes running in that dizzying manner and it’s all you can do to keep up. You’re chugging along, barely able to juggle the million things on your plate when something sudden happens and you let everything – including the plate – fall to the ground. And then you find yourself looking at the mess at your feet and those things that don’t really matter just fade away. What you’re left with is what matters.

Sometimes that something is the loss of a loved one, taken before anyone was ready. Maybe it’s facing your own mortality. For some it takes that kind of catastrophic life event before they realize what is truly important in life. And there are others who always know what their priorities are and live by them.

Last fall at BlogHer Food, Jennie and I were each tucked in our own hotel beds whispering stories into the drowsy darkness about the important people in our lives – both here and no longer here. Jennie’s words made me laugh and they made me cry, but they also instilled within me a deep respect for this no-nonsense, independent, loving, funny, and intelligent woman. She knew what mattered most in her life.

The food blogging community is reeling right now, because Jennie’s dear husband, Mikey, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly earlier this week. People are in shock and overcome with sadness. Like everyone else, when I learned of the news I held my beloved close to me and wept for my friend, for her Mikey, for their little girls, and for everyone who wasn’t expecting to be without him.

I know folks feel helplessness and despair. I’d like to point to Jennie as a shining beacon in this fog of sorrow, loss, and fear that has settled over so many. The way she talked about Mikey, the way they lived and loved their days together as a family, the time they set aside just for one another – this is love. This is living life. They made the moments count. They did it right.

I can’t think of a better way to honor Mikey than to live life and make it count. Let’s all do it right.

Edit: We can start with this group effort on Friday. Make a Creamy Peanut Butter Pie for Mikey. For Jennie.